1 70 TRINIDAD. 



population was distributed as follows in the counties : — St. 

 George, 43,559 males, 38,156 females ; Victoria, 22,446 males, 

 16,887 females ; Caroni, 13,946 males, 9,533 females. 



A rather interesting fact is the great overplus of females 

 residing in town as compared with the number of males. The 

 towns of Port-of-Spain and San Fernando exhibit the follow- 

 ing figures: — Males, 18,443; females, 19,750; rural districts — 

 males, 65,273; females, 49,662; the proportion being 106 

 females to 100 males in the towns, and 100 males to 76*08 

 females in the rural districts. For the year 1851, the proportion 

 was, in towns, 100 females to about 74 males; and in the rural 

 districts, 100 males to about 75 females. This disproportion 

 between males and females I consider to be very deplorable, both 

 in a moral and social point of view. 



The gathering of females in towns may be explained by the 

 following considerations: — Females are customarily more em- 

 ployed as household servants than males, as they are satisfied 

 with lesser wages, and indoor occupations being more in accord- 

 ance with the habits of their sex, they not only prefer that 

 service, but are more at home, as it were, in the performance of 

 its duties. There is, in addition to these, a very large proportion 

 of washerwomen, seamstresses, hucksters, cigar makers, and 

 petty traffickers, who more than compensate for the number of 

 tailors, shoemakers, and other artisans of the male sex. On the 

 other hand, it cannot be denied that many of the female sex 

 resort to towns for the purpose of either private or public pros- 

 titution. 



The larger number of males in the rural districts evidently 

 results from the disproportion of sexes among the imported 

 immigrants, 



I beg to be allowed to borrow from the Reports of the late 

 Protector of Immigrants, Dr. Mitchell, some very interesting 

 facts in connection with the mortality of our Indian labourers : — 

 In 1872, the mortality was 302 on a total of 7,949 under 

 original contract, or 3*8 per cent. Total average death-rate on 

 contract servants of all classes, 380 on 11,017'02, or 3*2 per cent. 

 Death-rate on children, 1*9 — on boys, 2*2 ; on girls, 1*6. 



1872-1873: Death-rate, 3'17. Children, 2'05 : boys, 2'3 ; 

 girls, 1*8; percentage of five years for both sexes, 1*94. It J 

 would seem that, in the Ward of Tacarigua (a healthy district), 



